Turmoil in the European natural gas markets in recent years has caused a sharpdecrease and subsequent slow rebound in the number of firms actively trading.As a result, there has been a major change in the definition of a typical tradingorganisation. As the markets regain momentum and trading volume increases, sotrading firms increasingly need a technology infrastructure that can keep pace.

Since the 2002 exodus of US trading companies from European natural gas and power,smaller industry